Matthew MurrayATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity6 Edition Video CardIf you've ever dreamed of having a wall of monitors of your very own, the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity6 Edition video card can make it a reality. But setting everything up won't necessarily be easy or cheap, and the performance may not live up to your expectations.

ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity6 Edition Video Card

Can drive up to six monitors at a time. Delivers good single-monitor gaming performance. 2GB of frame buffer increases performance at highest resolutions.

Cons

Mini DisplayPort jacks will require adapters (and possibly expensive ones) for almost all users. Setup of multiple large monitors can be cumbersome, and will be time- and space-consuming. Playable frame rates only possible with multiple displays at reduced detail levels.

Bottom Line

If you've ever dreamed of having a wall of monitors of your very own, the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity6 Edition video card can make it a reality. But setting everything up won't necessarily be easy or cheap, and the performance may not live up to your expectations.

Hooking up more than one monitor to your computer is not a new idea, whether for office workers needing one screen for e-mail and one for everything else or for gamers who don't want to leave the action to do something more trivial. More displays than that haven't been common, however, due to both the logistics and the expense. But that may soon change thanks to a new AMD video card that doesn't just allow but encourages complex, even foolhardy, multimonitor setups: the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity6 Edition.

The name tells you everything you need to know about this card. It costs a bit more than the standard 5870 ($479 list, as opposed to $399), but it's based on the same hardware as that next-to-top-of-the-line model with which AMD inaugurated its 5000-series of video cards last year. It supports AMD's easy-to-use multiple-display technology, Eyefinity, which the company unveiled at the same time. And, perhaps most notably, it can drive up to six monitors at a time. Yes, all by itself: a single, dual-slot card. If you've ever wanted to set up a literal wall of monitors, whether for playing a game on the biggest of big screens or for the ultimate in organizing your desktop and app windows, the 5870 Eyefinity6 Edition may be your best bet yet.

Matthew Murray got his humble start leading a technology-sensitive life in elementary school, where he struggled to satisfy his ravenous hunger for computers, computer games, and writing book reports in Integer BASIC. He earned his B.A. in Dramatic Writing at Western Washington University, where he also minored in Web design and German. He has been building computers for himself and others for more than 20 years, and he spent several years working in IT and helpdesk capacities before escaping into the far more exciting world...
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